About
Hi there and welcome!
I am Jared Madsen, and I tell old stories for a living. I lived in China for years and picked up the habit of asking for the story behind the temple, the mountain, the saying. Most of what I came home with was myths, legends, ghost stories and odd corners of history, and a lot of it had never been told in English.
In 2025 I started Jared Tells Tales to tell those stories the way they were told to me: out loud, without hurry, with enough history around them that you know where they came from and why people kept telling them. The channel passed 10,000 subscribers and 360,000 views in its first year and a half. Before that, and still today, I teach Mandarin on Learn Chinese Now.
The next step is books. I want the best of these tales on paper, with the sources and the side stories that do not fit a ten-minute video. The Books page has the state of that.
Most people follow the tales by email. Sign up below and you will get one message when a new story goes up. You can reply to any of them; I read what comes in.
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The channel in numbers
- 116
- Tales told
- 10,000
- Subscribers
- 360,000
- Views
Figures from YouTube, November 2026.
What viewers say
Comments left under the tales on YouTube.
“I played this video for my Primary Six English class as we were doing a chapter on storytelling. I must say I have never seen this boisterous batch of students become so engaged in a narration and listening so attentively as they did that day!”
“Hooked from the very beginning, you have a real knack for story telling.”
“As a Chinese growing up outside of China, I finally understand these various figures at Chinese temples. Thank you for your teaching.”
“This channel is seriously the best new find to come across my feed in a long time. Please, keep it up!”
“The Chinese pronunciations were solid. Rare to see and hear. Actual effort was put into this.”
“I was spellbound. Great story telling indeed!”
You can also follow along on YouTube, read on Substack, or listen on Spotify.